Police say fourth graders plotted to kill NY teacher

​Students at a school in western New York plotted to kill their fourth grade teacher in December, according to a law enforcement report that surfaced this week, but their plans were foiled by the police.

The Genesee County
Sheriff’s Department told local media this week that the suspects
— nine-year-old students from the Elba Central School District —
“made comments to other students that they were going to kill
[the teacher] by putting antibacterial products around the
classroom."

According to the Buffalo News, the teacher is reportedly
highly allergic to hand sanitizer.

“I don’t know her reaction to hand sanitizer. If it’s
something like peanut butter – in some people it can kill you.
Obviously these students had been made aware that this teacher
was highly allergic to anti-bacterial hand sanitizer and they
started talking amongst themselves because they didn’t like the
teacher,” Genesee County Sheriff Chief Investigator Jerome
E. Brewster told the News this week.

WGRZ-TV reported that a student at the school alerted
his mom about the plot last month, who then told the school board
and police. According to the network, one student interviewed for
the subsequent report indicated the teacher "yells at us and
that the class has problems with her."

“As soon as the District was made aware of the students'
discussion it called in students that were thought to have
knowledge of the discussions,” Elba Superintendent Jerome
Piwko said in a statement released on Thursday this week as word
of the police report made its rounds. “After the students
were interviewed, the District contacted the Sheriff's Department
and cooperated with the Sheriff's Deputies in their investigation
of the matter. The Sheriff's Department concluded that no crime
had been committed and the matter was turned back over to the
District. The District in turn has worked with the parents and
students involved to address this issue. It is important to note
that no one was injured or actually placed in harm's way.”

“The District does not condone any of the behaviors that have
been reported and is in the process of working alongside the
Sheriff's Department to use this incident as a vehicle for
educating the District's students regarding appropriate
behaviors,” Piwko said.

“When we realized they never followed through with it and
they told us they had no intention of following through, we said
there was not much we can do,” Brewster, the chief
investigator for Genesee County, told the Buffalo News. “We
suggested they turn it over to youth court, but (the school)
indicated they were going to handle it internally.”